Babylonian science in Talmud (1)

Text
Aramaic science in the Babylonian Talmud was transmitted or translated from Akkadian to Aramaic while the former was still a living language. This makes a quantitative difference to the accuracy of transmission. Jewish Aramaic parallels, for instance, have been found to such omen series as Šumma izbu, Šumma ālu, dream omens, physiognomic omens, and astronomical omens. Rabbinic literature records many omens listed under the rubric of Darkei Ha-emori, “Amorite Practices”, among which one can find many parallels with Pliny, suggesting that some of the omen traditions in Palestine were based upon classical sources. Other omens however, have clearly Mesopotamian origins, such as a Talmudic omen regarding a snake: if a snake fell on the bed, it says: “he is poor, but he will end up being rich. If (the woman) is pregnant, she will give birth to a boy. If she is a maiden, she will marry a great man.” (Veltri 1997: 130.) The 22nd tablet of the series Šumma ālu concerns itself with omens derived from snakes in the house, among which are omens in a broken passage which refer to a snake which falls upon a man’s bed. The initial omens are unfavourable, in that the man will suffer a calamity (tīb lemutti), or that man and wife will divorce; the remainder of the text is fragmentary. The exact equivalent of the Talmudic statement, that a poor man will become rich may well derive from Šumma ālu omens, since similar expressions appear in Akkadian omens, such as šarû ilappin, “a rich man will become poor,” or the reverse, lapnu išarra, “a poor man will be rich.”

Source (list of abbreviations)
Šumma ālu 22

Bibliography

Mark Geller

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